M. X. Kelly

That's what I'm doing in-between all the work that I do. I have two real part-time jobs that eat up a major portion of my week. I also have two mini-jobs that I do occasionally. I'm looking to get into editing/proofreading for yet a third part-time job. And, I'm still trying to find the time and motivation to write. I need to push myself to find the time to write. I often have a spare minute or two at my second part-time job in the computer lab at the community college, when students don't need my help printing or doing computer-y things.

I am writing this post during one of those dead calms. Only three students here and they're all doing their own thing.

I wanted to make a quick blog post to say that even though I'm working my jobs and still finding time to write, I also need to remind myself (as we all need to do) to remember to find time to rest.

Resting is important. If we don't take a break now and then, draw back and take deep breaths and do something fun and silly and completely time-wasting, then we can't recover the energy or motivation it takes to keep on plugging away at the work. ​Writing a blog post is kind of like both work and rest for me. It's something I need to do, but it's something I enjoy. I can take a moment and just let the words flow without any concern about whether they are good or bad words. Blogging is both my therapy and my practice for the serious writing that I want to do.

Blogging lets me communicate my thoughts and ideas and happenings to whoever wishes to know them. It allows me to let it all hang out; to reach inside myself and draw out what's on my mind, and learn how to translate that stuff into readable (hopefully) material for a wider audience.

I need to do this more often than I have been. No matter how tired, or how blocked I feel, I need to find a topic to just write a blog post about. Anything to keep the word juices flowing outward from me to the paper/screen.

To a writer, writing is life. And we need to do it the way lovers have sex. Sometimes it's bad, and that's not okay, but it's not the end of the world either. Sometimes it's good, and that's more than okay. Good can be improved upon later, especially with writing (eh, not so much with sex, perhaps). Sometimes it's like dynamite. It's fireworks and rockets and Catherine Wheels. Just so, soooo damn good.

That's what we live for, lovers and writers.

That's what we wish for every time we sit in front of the blank screen.